Tuesday, January 27, 2009

I'm continuing to catch up on this summer's pictures and hope to be up to date by the end of this winter! We'll see.

Tonight I am posting a few images from a mid-summer trip to Davis Farm. If you haven't been, I would have to say this is a worthwhile trip. The pictures tell the story... there's nothing too fancy, no roller coasters and carnival games. It's just a good farm with healthy and happy looking animals and a friendly staff. We really enjoyed it and certainly intend to return in 2009.

Monday, January 26, 2009

The images from Donna and Jerry's wedding are finished and now posted! Congratulations to both of you! Everyone had a wonderful time sharing in your special day. Images can be found here, and the password is the same as the last update.

Thanks again for letting us share your day with you, and best of love, health, and happiness to both of you and your family.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Tonight I completed and posted the images from Cindy and Rob's romantic wedding on December 20, 2008. The setting was warm and quaint, the lighting was beautifully arranged, and the mood was relaxed and joyful. The images can be found here.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

I ordered our Blurb book tonight. They said to expect it to ship in 5-6 business days. We ordered the book with premium paper, printed cover, and 112 total pages for about 65% of the cost of the iPhoto book (68 pages, no paper options, no printed cover option, only a slip jacket).

So, all said and done, if the quality is comparable on both books, Blurb looks like the much better deal. I've got high hopes for Apple quality though.

Tomorrow night its back to photography and on to Cindy Lou and Rob's Wedding.

I received an email from Apple today. The book that we created via iPhoto has already shipped. I'm impressed with the production time. The order was placed on the 12th at night and shipped on the 15th in the morning? 68 pages?

I hope the quality is on par with the service, but like I mentioned earlier, Apple makes you pay a premium for their books. With what this book cost, I expect excellent quality.

Monday, January 12, 2009

The silence is temporary... I'm creating books right now so I've got nothing new to post at the moment.

Book number 1 is ordered. It is Grandpa Mike's 70th Birthday, and I created and ordered it through Apple's iPhoto Application in iLife '08. I pre-ordered iLife '09 today as well and it should arrive on February 6th. iPhoto '09 features face detection and automatic tagging of known faces. I'm pretty excited about that feature. iMovie '09 (also part of iLife '09) features incredible "jitter" stabilization that removes hand shake from video. Again, I'm quite excited about this as well. First impressions on creating and buying books from Apple through iPhoto? Easy but expensive. I'm really looking forward to seeing the quality.

Book number 2 is in process. It is a "best of" our kids photo book (2006-2008) and I am creating it through a recommended photo service named blurb. The kind community over at FredMiranda.com recommended it to me. It is 115 pages so far, but the customization level is nice and the pricing looks much better than Apple iPhoto. Curious to see who delivers the better quality.

Book number three will follow, and it will be by another repeatedly recommended service named MyPublisher.com. More on that later.

After my little burst of hardcopy publishing is over, it's on to Cindy Lou & Rob's wedding. I'm excited to start working on these pictures. Beautiful couple, beautiful setting, beautiful light. Should be interesting.

By the way, she (at age 2 1/2) warned me this evening that it would be best for me not to close the bathroom door because it was very, very cold out and the pipes could freeze. She, of course, was absolutely correct.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy 2009 everyone! I used the day off today to complete pictures from Mike's 70th Birthday Party in Los Angeles from October. It was a great time indeed... well done Ellie, and we were happy to celebrate your day, Mike.